Morgan Clendaniel and the world of worldchanging ideas

Morgan Clendaniel and the world of worldchanging ideas

I love world-changing ideas. Who doesn’t? So it’s pretty easy to gravitate towards a Web site whose premise is to blow people’s minds and, in the words of editor Morgan Clendaniel, “rejigger the way the world works.” I spoke with Morgan this week on Nature of Business about Co.Exist, his year old site (and web section of Fast Company) and his passion to bring stories to us that create a sense of wonder and awe. They are also stories that instill a sense of hope that there are really smart and innovate people out there doing really cool game changing things.

What I found particularly appealing about our conversation was the emphasis Morgan puts on creating and nurturing a feedback loop for readers whereby the reader is connected with the company and/or person attached to a story.

This may come in form of an individual endeavoring to connect with a company doing amazing things or a company wanting to connect with another company to move the needle even further. It’s clear that Morgan and his team get the ultimate satisfaction when their stories translate into action.

And now that Co.Exist has been around for a year, they are able to revisit stories and update readers on the progress being made.

One story that Morgan highlighted when I asked him some of his favorite stories was a group out of MIT that had created an organic food safe coating called LiquiGlide designed to be put inside of food containers to reduce food waste. Think of a ketchup bottle and how many times we through away the bottle with ample ketchup still inside. No longer with LiquiGlide. It may have seemed like a crazy idea at the outset but it has been successful and the product is currently close to going to market. (Definitely check out the link above for the cool videos as well). There were several other stories of which we spoke of as well.

Much like Nature of Business, Co.Exist has the pleasure of reaching multiple audiences. In the case of Co.Exist these people are the sustainability maven, the Fast Company Businessperson, as well as the person on the Internet looking for the latest cool story. Certainly this has to do with the diversity of subject matter offered on the site. Sustainability is an underlying theme to all stories but not the sole focus. Indeed, Morgan won’t run a story if it doesn’t “embrace the vision of the future that is more sustainable without destroying planet.” Smart.

The future looks bright for Co.Exist. Morgan and his team will remain busy finding more news and continue to go after the stories they really want to go after and build them out even further. I, for one, am glad they exist. I think you will be, too.